Summary of this article
· PFRDA partners with FPOs and MSMEs to promote pension awareness and bring more informal sector and agricultural workers under pension coverage
· Current pension coverage at 17 crore out of 46 crore workforce
· The goal is to achieve pension for all by 2047
The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has launched a drive to bring more people engaged in the agriculture sector under pension coverage. The regulatory authority monitors the National Pension System (NPS), Atal Pension Yojana (APY), and the recently launched Unified Pension Scheme (UPS). The authority monitors over 80 million subscribers and more than Rs 15.5 lakh crore in assets under management (AUM) under these pension schemes.
While the pension scheme has gone through a lot of changes over the past few years to make it more flexible and inclusive, the regulator is now focusing on the agriculture workforce by partnering with the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and other cooperatives to spread awareness about its pension schemes and get them enrolled under it.
A recent post by PFRDA on X (formerly Twitter) reads, “PFRDA aims to bring pension security to India’s entire agri workforce!”
As the focus is now on enrolling more agriculture sector workers, it says, “Through partnerships with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and innovative features in NPS and APY, PFRDA is committed to expanding pension coverage and ensuring financial security for farmers and informal workers.”
PFRDA executive director, Mamta Rohit, said in an interview reported by Bizz Buzz, “India’s working population is about 460 million, but only 170 million currently enjoy pension coverage. By 2047, we want the entire workforce—especially those in the unorganised sector—to be part of pension.”
She also said that agriculture is a seasonal job and thus, a pension is more important for the farmers. And while efforts are being made to reach out to them, FPOs are a more effective channel to inform them about the schemes’ benefits and register them.
To achieve its target of pension for all by 2047, the regulator aims to include all segments of people under NPS and APY’s social security coverage. Lately, it has launched several initiatives, including systematic lump sum withdrawal, a higher entry age of 70, partial withdrawal of 25 per cent corpus under certain circumstances, more choice of pension fund managers for the debt and equity portion of the portfolio, and the addition of NPS Vatsalya Scheme for minors to ensure their financial security, among others.
